Prof Marleen Temmerman

Prof Temmerman, PhD, is the Professor and Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology & Director of the Aga Khan University Hospital, Centre of Excellence in Women, Child and Adolescent Health, and Chairholder of the Aga Khan University -UNESCO Chair.

She is a well-recognized global leader in women, adolescent and child health and rights. She brings academic, technical, political, governance, management and leadership skills to the table as well as diplomacy, advocacy, fundraising, training and clinical expertise.

Zul Merali

Prof Merali, PhD, is a Professor, College of Medicine – East Africa, Aga Khan University. He is the Founding Director of the Brain and Mind Institute at the Aga Khan University, and was the CEO and VP Research at the University of Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research. He was the founding scientific director of the Canadian Depression Research and Intervention Network (CDRIN), a pan-Canadian network of clinicians, researchers and people with lived experience, focused on depression.

Prof Anthony Ngugi

Prof  Ngugi, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Population health with close to 15 years of experience in health research in Africa. His research interests include statistical epidemiology, maternal and child health, epidemiology of epilepsy, community health and health information systems. He has co-developed and co-led and analyzed large mixed design multi-country studies aimed at profiling the epidemiology of epilepsy and covering over 600,000 population in demographic surveillance systems in sub- Saharan African Countries.

Prof Nancy Booker

Prof Nancy Booker, PhD, is an Associate Professor and the Associate Dean at the Aga Khan University Graduate School of Media and Communications. She has had a distinguished career as an academic, teacher, researcher and media practitioner with over 18 years teaching and academic administration experience. Prof Booker specializes in broadcast journalism, multimedia storytelling, media management and health communication, and has several academic publications in these areas.

Farhana Alarakhiya

Ms. Alarakhiya is a veteran in the world of Big Data analytics and AI and has spent the last decade building SaaS solutions that enable transformative outcomes by unlocking the power of data. She considers herself to be a DRIP destroyer, eradicating the problem for many of being “Data-Rich but Insight Poor” As the Chief Data Innovation Officer at Aga Khan University, her work is focused on coupling data with smart driven people to deliver social, economic, and environmental impact that can change the world.

Prof Lukoye Atwoli

Prof Atwoli, MBBS, PhD, is the Dean, College of Medicine – East Africa, Aga Khan University. He leads and participates in mental health research locally and globally. He is a member of the WHO World Mental Health Surveys Consortium, which is the leading collaborative project in psychiatric epidemiology globally. He was also the Global Technical Director for the citiesRISE initiative (www.cities-rise.org), whose goal is to help make five cities mental health friendly (Nairobi, Chennai, Bogota, as well as Seattle and Sacramento). The initiative works with young people in these cities to increase connectedness, improving their coping ability by working to build resilience and hopefulness, and linking those in need to care.

Peris Musitia

Ms. Musitia is a Research Manager at the Institute for Human Development. She oversees the core administrative functions at the UZIMA-DS Hub and provides support for various research and project endeavours, particularly those focused on mental health and maternal and child health. Musitia ensures that all projects comply with research ethics guidelines, coordinates data dissemination initiatives, and facilitates the capacity building of research fellows within the hub, as well as managing grants and sub-grants for the hub.

She has background training in Development Studies, with a bachelor’s degree in Disaster Management from Masinde Muliro University and a master’s degree in Development Studies from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Development Studies. She has experience in research coordination and management for maternal and child health-related projects. Her interests lie at the intersection of climate change and the health system, with a focus on mental health-related research.​

Linda Khakali

Linda Norah Khakali holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Nairobi and is currently a master’s student in rural sociology and community development at the same institution. She has also pursued other professional development courses in project management in global health, conducting research responsibly, leadership in global health, and monitoring and evaluation in global health from the University of Washington. She is a qualitative and quantitative expert with experience in developing study protocol, ethical approval coordination, continuous quality improvement, quality stakeholder negotiation and engagement. she has worked with key populations, people who inject drugs, female sex workers, men who have sex with men (MSM), and people living with HIV. She has featured in a publication on tobacco use behaviors among people living with HIV in Nairobi.

Andrew Aballa

Andrew is a medical research scientist with in-depth knowledge of quantitative and qualitative research methods and complementary disciplines such as data analysis and scientific writing. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Biomedical Science and Technology from Maseno University, Kenya, specializing in Medical Biotechnology, and a Master of Science degree in Infectious Diseases from Kenyatta University. He has worked as part of research teams in accredited research organizations such as the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), where he gained and sharpened research skills, key among them project design, data collection, and data management and analysis. Andrew supports research initiatives for the UZIMA-DS Hub, through programming and pretesting of research tools, engaging key authorities in field sites, and administrative duties, including grant support. His research interests are in emerging and re-emerging infectious and non-communicable diseases in Kenya.

Dr Angela Koech

Dr Koech, MBBS, is an Assistant professor in the Aga Khan University Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and a co-principal investigator of the PRECISE Project at the AKU-East Africa Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health. She is a medical doctor and holds an MMed (Obstetrics and Gynaecology) degree from the Aga Khan University and an MSc in Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She has seven years’ experience in clinical medicine and over three years’ experience in clinical research in the area of maternal and newborn health. She has been involved in setting up and conducting several clinical studies alongside a perinatal surveillance program at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust research programme in Kenya. Her previous work has been in the areas of maternal Group B Streptococcus and its role in neonatal disease, fetal growth and aetiology of preterm birth/low birth weight, preeclampsia and its risk factors and the role of inflammatory markers in preterm pre-labour rupture of membranes. She has publications in peer reviewed journals and has presented in several local and international conferences.

Willie Njoroge

Willie holds a Master of Science degree in Applied Psychology from Central China Normal University and a Bachelor of Arts degree (Honors) in Clinical Psychology and Sociology from the University of Namibia. He is currently a PhD candidate in Applied Psychology at Southwest University, Chongqing, China. He is a seasoned academician who brings cumulative experience in applied psychology research, consultancy, leadership, and mentorship. He is a seasoned academician who brings cumulative experience in applied psychology research, consultancy, leadership, and mentorship. His research interests include insomnia, rumination, sleep hygiene, mental health and psychosocial support, health psychology, smartphone addiction, psychological resilience, and well-being. He is also a member of the Kenya Counselling and Psychological Association and strongly advocates serving humanity in research-oriented mental health prevention, promotion, and psychosocial support.

James Orwa

James is in-charge of coordinating data management and analysis core activities and Data Management and Analysis (DMAC) project  under the UtiliZing health Information for Meaningful impact in East Africa through Data Science. He received his MSc in Biostatistics from Hasselt University Belgium and is currently enrolled for PhD program in public health at Ghent University Belgium. His main areas of research revolves around HIV/TB, and maternal newborn and child health. James has authored several journals papers either as first or collaborating author in peer-reviewed journals. James has a professional skill in data management and analysis using R, STATA, and SAS software.

Dr Saleem Sayani

Dr Saleem is an international leader in health care Information Technology (IT). He has over 30 years of international experience in delivering innovative technology solutions that drive change and business success in cross-cultural environments. As a digital transformation leader, he has played an instrumental leadership role at various organizations in delivering and implementing technology solutions that foster innovation, business growth and performance.

Currently, he serves as the Director for the Technology Innovation Support Centre at the Aga Khan University and the Director of the Aga Khan Development Network Digital Health Resource Centre (AKDN dHRC), where he leads and manages digital health systems and a portfolio of innovative digital health projects, programs and solutions. He provides leadership, strategic direction and guidance across AKDN entities to deliver health care services and learning programs in South-Central Asia, Africa and the Middle East. He has helped nurture a culture of creativity and innovation within AKDN, which has resulted in 12 patentable digital health ideas/solutions in biomedical engineering. In 2019, Saleem was appointed by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a Digital Health Expert in its Global Digital Health Expert group to help WHO in its efforts to advance the digital health ecosystem globally.

Stephen Wong

Stephen Wong has spent over three decades helping organizations realize and enable their data and analytics strategy. He launched his career working at SAS, the largest privately owned software company and leader in enterprise analytics, where he worked with multiple Fortune 100 companies across the full data life cycle. He is currently the Principal Data Lead and Architect at the Aga Khan University in the office of the Chief Data Innovation Officer. At AKU, he is bringing his vast experience and knowledge to build Big Data platforms focused on population health management with the objective of improving the quality of life of communities in East Africa. Prior to AKU, he was Director at CIBC and Scotiabank, two of the largest banks in Canada. While there, he focused on Enterprise Data Governance so is well versed in the complexities of regulatory compliance and data governance policies.

Prof Samad Zainab

Dr. Zainab Samad, MBBS, is chairwoman of the Department of Medicine at Aga Khan University in Pakistan and currently serves as an Adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine at Duke University. Dr. Samad’s clinical and research efforts are focused on understanding the epidemiology and outcomes of heart disease.

Tom Joe Omollo

Tom Joe works as a Project Assistant for the UZIMA-DS Project housed under the Institute for Human development (IHD) at the Aga Khan University. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology with IT from Maseno University and is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology at Kenyatta University. Tom Joe has a wealth of experience in mixed-methods research, Monitoring and Evaluation and Data Analysis. His research interests are in Maternal, Child and Mental Health.

Daisy Chelangat

Ms. Chelangat is a PhD fellow at the Institute for Human Development. She has a master’s degree in applied Statistics from Kabianga university and a bachelor’s degree in applied Statistics with Computing from Maasai Mara University. She has over five years of experience in research, data analysis, reporting and manuscript writing. As a methodologist, her work in UZIMA is focused in the development of machine learning predictive models for maternal and child outcomes in the Kenyan coast. Her professional interests lie in using statistical and machine learning methods to obtain meaningful insights from data.

Faith Neema

Ms. Neema is a PhD fellow at the Aga Khan University Institute for Human Development, supporting the UZIMA-DS Hub Maternal, Newborn and Child Health project. working on a project that deals with Maternal, Newborn and Child Health. Her PhD is in Applied Mathematics (Applied Machine Learning), a comprehensive program that merges advanced mathematical techniques with practical applications in machine learning. She also holds an MSc in Mathematical Sciences from the University of Cape Town, South Africa and a master’s degree in Machine Intelligence from the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Ghana.

Neema is passionate abou​​t finding solutions to health-related problems using Artificial Intelligence. Her PhD program will significantly contribute to the promotion of Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health in Kenya by leveraging the expertise gained in applied machine learning to develop predictive models, identify trends, and uncover correlations within healthcare data. She hopes to enable more accurate and timely interventions, improving healthcare outcomes for mothers and children across Kenya, and ultimately advancing the overall healthcare landscape in Kenya.

Amos Bunde

Amos is a Data Engineer/Architect Team lead at the AKU Data Innovation Office. He is currently pursuing an MS in Information Systems and Computing at Liverpool John Moore University and holds a BSc in Applied Statistics with Computing mirrors. He is dedicated to transforming data challenges into strategic opportunities. Within Aga Khan University, he spearheads the creation of data architectures that steer research objectives. His scope extends to various domains including cloud infrastructures, pipeline construction, data workflow abstraction, machine learning and design. Beyond technical skills, Amos leads by example, mentoring cross-functional teams and nurturing a culture of innovation. Amos views himself as a perpetual learner, fuelled by a genuine enthusiasm for machine learning, data streaming and quantum computing. Amos is passionate about coding, mentorship and basketball, and is proud to support the UZIMA-DS Hub.

Nigel Kamotho

Nigel , a data science, and data protection expert at AKU’s Data Innovations Office, leverages his unique skillset to navigate the complex world of data sharing. He crafts robust data governance frameworks, ensuring secure and responsible data sharing practices. Currently, his focus lies on implementing data science projects on the cloud for Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs).

Antony Kagure

As a Product Marketing Specialist at the Aga Khan University Data Innovation Office, Antony brings life to the work the data team does by providing awareness internally and externally on how the UZIMA-DS Hub uses data to transform health outcomes in Kenya. He is passionate about storytelling, particularly, transforming the complex into easy-to-consume simplicity. He hol​ds a Bachelor of Commerce degree with a Marketing specialization from the University of Nairobi. His expertise is in content marketing, social media marketing, social media management, data storytelling, and community building​​.​​

Dorcas Mwigereri

Dorcas is a PhD Fellow in the Population Health Department, specializing in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. She is an experienced researcher, skilled and versatile Machine Learning Engineer and Computer Scientist with great experience with Python, R, PHP, Java and other web technologies ,C#, Postgress, MySQL, SQL Server 2008 and XML. She is one of the awardees of the UZIMA-DS Pilot grants, specifically the Ante-natal risk stratification of gestational diabetes mellitus in the 1st and 2nd trimester using Machine Learning models, which aims to address the current gaps in predicting Gestational Diabetes Mellitus(GDM) by overcoming specific limitations in existing research.

Florence Jaguga

Dr ​Florence is an Implementation Scientist Consultant with the Brain and Mind Institute, tasked to conduct a baseline mental health survey of undergraduate and postgraduate students at Aga Khan University Campuses. She holds a master’s degree in Psychiatry and a Bachelor of Medicine Bachelor of Surgery degree from Moi University School of Medicine. 

Her expertise includes treatment and prevention of substance use disorders, implementation science research, human rights for persons with disability and mental health conditions, and policy formulation. Dr Florence’s research work uses implementation science approaches to find practical and affordable solutions for increasing access to mental health and substance use disorder treatment and prevention services in Kenya.

Onesmus Wanje

Onesmus is currently pursuing a MPH at Pwani University and holds a BSc in Community Health. He has extensive experience in community engagement for women’s health research, youth programming, policy advocacy, and implementation research. He supports UZIMA’s dissemination and sustainability core with community engagement efforts focused on maternal and child health.

Anita Kerubo

Anita Kerubo is a graduate researcher with a statistics and data science background. She is currently pursuing a Master’s in Statistics and Data Science at Hasselt University in collaboration with the Aga Khan University’s Institute for Human Development. She focuses on applying statistical and machine learning methods to study cognitive health in children and adolescents.

Her work includes mixed-methods research, statistical modelling, and AI applications in neuroscience and global health. Anita is passionate about utilising data-driven insights to improve brain health outcomes in Africa.

Moses Mukhanya

Moses is a Data Manager at the Aga Khan University Institute for Human Development. He holds a Master of Science in Data Science and Analytics from Strathmore University, funded by the UZIMA-DS project, and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Kibabii University.

Moses is interested in applying artificial intelligence, data science, and machine learning to address health-related challenges. He believes that advancements in data science offer valuable opportunities for the early detection of health issues, enabling timely and effective interventions.

Rais Muhammad

Rais is a Data Engineer at the  Aga Khan University Data Innovation Office, where he designs and supports scalable data pipelines, analytics platforms, and cloud-based infrastructure. With experience in big data and cloud technologies, he contributes to both technical delivery and team capacity building. Rais is passionate about technical leadership, continuous learning, and the use of data-driven technologies to enable impactful research and institutional decision-making.

Allan Zablon

Allan is a Data Engineer architecting cloud analytics platforms for multi-site research and healthcare data. He specializes in distributed data processing, compute-intensive workloads, and federated analytics that preserve data locality. He engineers and operates LLM-enabled platform capabilities that allow researchers and teams to run governed, scalable AI workloads on top of shared data infrastructure.

Derick Imbati

Derick Viunza Imbati is a Data Engineer at Aga Khan University, where he bridges the gap between raw health data and ML-driven discovery. Supporting the UZIMA-DS Research Hub, he builds scalable, cloud-based pipelines necessary for complex health analytics. By optimizing for security and performance, Derick ensures a seamless transition from data engineering to Machine Learning and scholarly publication, empowering research teams to deliver impactful health insights.